In a shocking turn of events, despite weeks of solid reporting that Lionel Messi had all but agreed a contract extension with Barcelona, the world’s greatest ever player will not renew with the club where he has spent his entire professional career.
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Manchester City were heavily linked with a move for the forward last summer, before now-deposed club President Josep Maria Bartomeu forced Messi to continue with the club for at least one more season. However, Barcelona’s horrendous financial mismanagement in recent seasons, coupled with La Liga’s strict salary cap rules, has prevented the player from re-signing at the last minute, despite reported mutual interest from both sides.
City should once again immediately spring to the forefront of teams linked with the Argentinian forward, but the move has been made very complicated by City’s recently confirmed record-breaking £100m transfer for Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish. City have made summer plans without even the thought of a Messi-Pep Guardiola reunion, and with just two days until the season’s unofficial kickoff in the Community Shield against Leicester, pulling together the finances to pay the player’s massive wages could be a complex operation.
For a player as good as Messi, however, City need to do everything in their power to try and get it done. City have an issue at center-forward, and while Messi is not usually deployed as an out-and-out striker, he could be the perfect fit for Guardiola’s false-nine system which led to City’s Premier League title run last season. Departures such as Bernardo Silva and Aymeric Laporte may be necessary, but unlike Barcelona’s assets, City’s have several interested suitors willing to pay a reasonable fee.
Whatever happens, things will need to move quickly. All of Europe’s major leagues are set to kick off in short order, and Messi will need to acclimate to wherever he will be playing next season. City should be on the phone working through what will need to be done to weave another chapter into the most compelling, ever-changing transfer story the sport of football has seen in recent years.